Thursday, May 05, 2011

Minnesota Republican majority leader, Matt Dean, publicly called author Neil Gaiman a “pencil-necked little weasel who stole $45,000 from the state of Minnesota.” From The Guardian:

The astonishing attack from the Minnesota House of Representatives majority leader, published in the Star Tribune yesterday, centred on a fee of $45,000 (£27,000) paid to Gaiman – "who I hate," Dean added -- from state art funds last year for a speaking appearance at Stillwater Library in Minnesota.

Describing the comments as “bullying schoolyard nonsense,” Gaiman said Dean’s assertion that he stole the money “is a lie.” “Yes, I gave the money to charities -- a sexual abuse one and a library/author one, long ago, when the cheque came in, well before this ever became a political football.

When it came to the name-calling, though, Gaiman had more trouble with parts of it than others.

Gaiman was less perturbed about the “pencil-necked weasel” insult. “I like ‘pencil-necked weasel.’ It has ‘pencil’ in it. Pencils are good things. You can draw or write things with pencils. I think it's what you call someone when you're worried that using a long word like 'intellectual' may have too many syllables. It's not something that people who have serious, important things to say call other people," said the author, whose 1.5 million Twitter followers managed to crash Dean's website after he posted a link to it. ("Bugger. Did not mean to #neilwebfail the twit's site. Sorry," tweeted Gaiman.)

2 Comments:

Anonymous said...

Matt Dean is right! Gaiman is taking money from Minnesota to fund Scientology which is being investigated for Human Trafficking. Gaiman is worse than a pencil necked weasel, he's a cult member and the only charity Gaiman donates to is SCIENTOLOGY!

Neil Gaiman in the Cornerstone Newsletter along with Mary Gaiman, ascontributing $35,000.00 in 2009. Being listed in the Cornerstone Newslettermeans you are in good-standing with the cult. In 2010, Mary Gaiman was awarded the "Gold Humanitarian Award" for her contribution of $500,000.00 to Scientology. This issignificant because Mary Gaiman continues to be Neil Gaiman’s business partnerin The Blank Corporation, which is now Neil Gaiman's Scientology front and howhe pays the cult. Gaiman is also the "Vitamin Heir" of Scientology.

The Gaiman family owns G&G Vitamins which reaps 6 million a year from sellingThe Purification Rundown Vitamins.Gaiman's two sisters, Claire Edwards and Lizzie Calciole are not just high-ranking Scientologists, they are the head of RECRUITING and the head of Wealden House, the Scientology stronghold in East Grinstead. These twocannot associate with Neil unless he is in good standing.

It seems likely that his fee for speaking was determined and agreed on before the event; once the money has been paid to him, he can do whatever he likes with it (as long as it's legal). Whether or not you agree with him isn't relevant.Also, why is it relevant that the House of Reps. Majority Speaker "hates" Neil Gaiman? Obviously, the person or people who organized the event respect Neil Gaiman as an author and wanted to have him speak at the event. Mr. Dean's personal feelings have nothing to do with this.It seems that Mr. Gaiman was hired to speak at an event, he spoke at the event, and he was paid. After that, what he does with the money is his business.